The Snacking Sage

Flip a coin. Which way will it land? Nobody really knows. So Instead, We Decide that it’s up to ‘chance’. Truth Be told, Chance is the ‘God’ of science. But before that, It deals solely in absolutes. Something either is, or it isn’t. And things that can’t be squeezed into that mindset are called paradoxes. Sneaky little things. To Quote Fuzzy Thinking’s opening: One Day I learned that science was not true. I do not recall the day but I recall the moment. The God of the Twentieth Century was no longer god. There was a mistake and everyone in science seemed to make it. they said that all things were true or false. They were not always sure which things were true and which things were false. But they were sure that all the things were either true or false.

Ever heard of the uncertainty principle? I really hate the whole notion. Why? Because is essentially just means they gave up trying to understand the universe, and decided that it was all random, Chaotic, and couldn’t be understood by the rational mind. I really enjoy this Paper on it. The first few pages, anyway. I wouldn’t bother with the rest. Here is the first paragraph:

 Very few scientific principles had greater impact on humanity than Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle [1]  even though the essence of the principle itself has always been highly controversial.The origin of the uncertainty principle is very simple: we cannot imagine and conduct sufficiently accurate and non-invading experiments that would expose the reason for the non-deterministic behaviour of sub-atomic particles such as electrons. Heisenberg argued, that since the experimental study with any material apparatus has proven impossible, we do not need to create any theory, simply because we would never be able to verify it experimentally.Instead, for practical reasons, he proposed to accept certain aspects of the sub-atomic reality as unknown and unexplorable. His uncertainty principle intelligently defined bounds of uncertainty and enabled us to use statistics as a way to quantify the sub-atomic processes. Heisenberg’s approach turned out to be very practical and enabled the unprecedented development of material technology to take place. This in turn reinforced the belief in the correctness of the uncertainty principle. As a result, the uncertainty principle itself seems to enjoy the status of the Law of Nature and is no longer questioned.

Now, Before I get too off track, I’m not interested in discussing atoms and Electrons and chaos theory and all the rest of it. I’m just looking at the way we approaches reality in general these days. And Seeing as someone managed to write an entire book on it, I can’t really explain all the context. They are both a fascinating read (to me, anyway). So take a Coin. it’s the first thing I think of when I think about chance, a pair of dice being the second. In purely mathematical terms, It supposedly will always have a 50% chance of landing on either heads or tails.  But say you have already had 2 heads? How about then? If I’ve learned anything, it’s that the universe loves balance. Homeostasis, equilibrium, call it what you will. All systems strive for balance. That’s why atoms swap electrons in chemical reactions. To become stable. Balanced.

And it’s the same here. That’s why when you toss a coin 10,000 times you end up with a value of 0.5 for tails. But what does that have to do with chance? that’s just the universal truth of balance. I guess what I’m trying to say is that probability isn’t real. As Einstein Famously said: ‘God doesn’t play dice.’ Who said this was random? Isn’t there variables to discover? How many rotations the coin do? How much force are you using to flick it? And if you can find these out, suddenly, chance doesn’t exist anymore. I’m sure the more mathematically inclined among you could figure it out.

In science, they call it probablility.I love the way he explains how he came to be disillusioned. He talks about an old film running on reverse, and Watching apples come back onto the tree, and all the rest of it. There is something magical about watching something in reverse. I’ve come to the conclusion that probability is just an excuse to not understand something properly. If you account for all the variables, measure them, it disappears. Take an apple tree. study it. And then you can Know which ones will fall.

This is something I’ve pondered since I was a child. For the longest time, When Playing Video Games, hings have behaved almost as if they are reacting intelligently to me in a way that should technically be impossible. And yet, time after time, I see it again. Ever heard of a game called bejeweled? It doesn’t really matter. You match gems, like candy crush.

And gems drop down at ‘random’ at you, and if you get ‘lucky’ you do better. Or that’s the way it is supposed to work. So here’s the bizarre thing: Say someone else has a go on my account. Same profile, the computer has no way of knowing someone else is playing. But they do really well, and the game gives them a good time. And I have a go, and it just vanishes.

I’m a bit guilty about this, But I’ve been playing games quite a bit this last week. And I noticed it again. I’ve been playing a game called warframe. And like most games, It has ‘random’ Drop Chances for loot. Generally, There is a boss that drops a certain item and people just run it over and over again to finally get the darn thing to drop.

And if you do it that way, that’s what life will give you. But If you take your time, Savour the moment, And decide that you are not really that interested in getting the thing? Something magical happens. I can’t explain it.

So look at the picture. That character in the centre is mine. I was trying to get a new bow. for ages I was doing it alone, in that same souless fashion. And got nothing. So I tried something new. I went out of my confort zone, talked to real people, recruited them, and we went for 40 waves on a mission (the thing I wanted only dropped on wave 20 and 40.)

It was tough. It was a hour long slog or more, and at one time It got pretty dicey. I was so worried we were going to lose! Maybe the best part was just Before we finished, the game just gave us 2 really rare drops. at once. I had been wanting them for ages!

And I got what I wanted. The other thing I’ve noticed is that when you feel better, things just flow easier. I can’t explain it. But life is kinder to you when you feel better. I guess you could call it the law of attraction. But that would leave a bitter taste in my mouth. People have twisted and perverted and misunderstood that to the degree that I don’t want to touch it with a 6 foot pole. But I won’t preach. I don’t recomend it. I would suggest Showing them your values. Live the way you want to live, and make people ask! be inspiring. Be a beacon.

Thanks for reading.